Mitchell, Sir Andrew

, knight of the bath, and a
distinguished ambassador at the court of Berlin, was the
only child of the rev. William Mitchell, formerly of Aberdeen, but then one of the ministers of St. Giles’s, commonly called the high church of Edinburgh. The time of
his birth is not specified, but he is said to have been married in 1715, when very young, to a lady who died four
years after in child-birth, and whose loss he felt with so
much acuteness, as to be obliged to discontinue the study
of the law, for which his father had designed him, and
divert his grief by travelling, amusements, &c. This mode
of life is said to have been the original cause of an extensive acquaintance with the principal noblemen and gentlemen in North Britain, by whom he was esteemed for sense,
spirit, and intelligent conversation. Though his progress
in the sciences was but small, yet no person had a greater
regard for men of learning, and he particularly cultivated
the acquaintance of the clergy, and professors of the university of Edinburgh. About 1736 he appears to have
paid considerable attention to mathematics under the direction of the celebrated Maclaurin; and soon after began,
his political career, as secretary to the marquis of Tweedale, who Wc-s appointed minister for the affuirs of Scotland
in 1741. He became also acquainted with the earl of Stair,
and it was owing to his application to that nobleman that
Dr. (afterwards sir John) Pringle, was in 1742 appointed
physician to the British ambassador at the Hague.

Though the marquis of Tweedale resigned the place of
secretary of state, in consequence of the rebellion in 1745,
yet Mr. Mitchell still kept in favour. He had taken care,
during that memorable period, to keep up a correspondence with some eminent clergymen in Scotland, and from
time to time communicated the intelligence he received;
which assiduity was rewarded wiih a seat in the House of
Commons in 1747, as representative for the burghs of
| BamfF, Elgin, Cullen, Inverurie, and Kiiitore. In 1751
he was appointed his majesty’s resident at Brussels, where,
continuing two years, he in 1753 came to London, was
created a knight of the bath, and appointed ambassador
extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the court of Berlin*
There, by his polite behaviour, and a previous acquaintance with marshal Keith, he acquired sufficient influence
with his Prussian majesty to detach him from the French
interest. This event involved the court of France in the
greatest losses, arising not only from vast subsidies to the
courts of Vienna, Petersburg!], and Stockholm, but also
from the loss of numerous armies. Sir Audrew generally
accompanied the great Frederick through the course of his
several campaigns, and when, on the memorable 12th of
August, 1759, the Prussian army was totally routed by
count SoltikofT, the Russian general, it was with difficulty
that he could be prevailed upon to quit the king’s tent,
even while all was in confusion.

From a very recent writer, we have some account of his
mode of living and general conduct while at Berlin, which
was highly honourable to his sense and spirit. When he
first arrived at Berlin, he had occasioned some perplexity to
those who invited him to their houses, for he played no
game of chance, so that his hosts constantly said to each
other, “What shall we do with this Englishman, who
never plays at cards” In a short time, however, the
contest was, who should leave the card -table to enjoy the
conversation of sir Andrew Mitchell, whose understanding,
they discovered, was no less admirable than the virtues of
his character. His bon-mots came into circulation, and
were long retailed. Thiebault has recorded a few which,
as he says, explain rather his principles than his understanding. On one occasion that three English mails were
due, the king said to him, at the levee, “Have you not
the spleen, Mr. Mitchell, when the mail is thus delayed r”
“No, Sire, not when it is delayed, but often enough when
it arrives duly.” This alludes to his being frequently dissatisfied with his own court. During the seven years’ war,
in which, as we have already noticed, he constantly served
immediately under Frederic, the English government had
promised Frederic to send a fleet to the Baltic, for the
protection of commerce, and to keep off the Swedes and
Russians; but as this fleet never made its appearance, the
Swedes were enabled to transport their army without
|
interruption to Pomerania, together with all the necessaries
for its support, and the Russians conveyed provisions for
their troops by sea, and laid siege to Colberg, &c. All
this could not fail to give umbrage to Frederic, and he incessantly complained to sir Andrew, who found himself
embarrassed what reply to make. At length the ambassador, who had before been daily invited to dine with the
king, received no longer this mark of attention; the generals, meeting him about the king’s hour of dinner, said to
him, < It is dinner-time, M. Mitchell.“” Ah gentlemen,“replied he,” no fleet, no dinner“This was repeated to Frederic, and the invitations were renewed.
Frederic in his fits of ill-humour was known to exercise his
wit even at the expence of his allies; and the English
minister at home expressed to sir Andrew Mitchell a wish
that he would include some of these splenetic effusions in
his official dispatches. Sir Andrew, however, in reply,
stated the distinction between such kind of intelligence,
and that which properly belonged to his office; and the
application was not repeated, by which he was saved from
the disgrace, for such he considered it, of descending to
the littlenesses of a mere gossip and tale-bearer. We shall
only add one more repartee of sir Andrew Mitchell, because, if we mistake not, it has been repeated as the property of other wits. After the affair of Port Mahon, the
king of Prussia said to him,” You have made a bad beginning, M. Mitchell. What! your fleet beaten, and Port
Mahon taken in your first campaign The trial in which
you are proceeding against your admiral Byng is a bad
plaister for the malady. You have made a pitiful campaign of it; this is certain.“” Sire, we hope, with God’s
assistance, to make a better next year.“” With GocVs
assistance, say you, Sir I did not know you had such an
ally.“” We rely much upon him, though he costs us less
than our other allies."

In 1765, sir Andrew came over to England for the recovery of his health, which was considerably impaired,
and after spending some time at TunbridgeWells, returned
in March 1766 to Berlin, where he died Jan. 28, 1771.
The court of Prussia honoured his funeral with their presence, and the king himself, from a balcony, is said to
have beheld the procession with tears. 1

This text has been generated using commercial OCR software,
and there are still many problems; it is slowly getting better
over time.
The text was scanned and OCRd several times, and
a majority version of each line of text was chosen.
Please don't reuse the content
(e.g. do not post to wikipedia)
without asking liam
at holoweb dot net first (mention the colour of your socks in the mail),
because I am still working on fixing errors.
Thanks!